Running Out of Days
Chapter 1
"What's going on?" the first three words out of Major John Sheppard's mouth that day to anyone were directed at a rather bewildered Elizabeth Weir. He frowned at her lack of response and turned his eyes toward the Stargate. It was active—the iris closed securely around it. "What's going on?" he repeated, rubbing the back of his head with his hand and discreetly looking at his watch. '6:30 in the morning…' he sighed to himself, 'Way too early for anyone sane to be gating here…' his thoughts were interrupted by another wide yawn.
"I don't know," Elizabeth shot a look back at the major's ruffled looks, speaking with a deliberately quiet tone and rolled her eyes before turning back to the Stargate. "This is Doctor Elizabeth Weir. Who is this?" she asked loudly.
"I'm Lia Mitch," a woman's voice filtered in with the static over the speakers. "Where is Odethious?" she questioned.
"I don't know who you're talking about," Elizabeth replied firmly.
"What are you?" Sheppard frowned at the next question and opened his mouth to protest, but Weir beat him to the punch.
"We're humans from a planet called Earth," she answered. "Where are you from?"
"That is not important now." Weir raised her eyebrows at the frazzled tone of the woman's voice. "How did Atlantis fall into your hands?"
"We traveled through the Stargate from our planet. The place was deserted," Weir informed her. "Who is Odethious?"
A chorus of low screams ripped through the air. Weir glanced over at Sheppard worriedly. "Lia?" she called, frowning.
"I am here," she answered, her voice low. "If you are truly the ones who hold Atlantis now… I have information for you."
"About what?"
"The Wraith," she responded quickly. "Please allow me to come to your city."
"On what terms are you making this deal?" Sheppard spoke up, overriding Elizabeth, "You give us information. What do you want from us?"
"A place to stay," the woman answered plaintively. "Please. It will only be for a little while—"
Her next words were cut off by another scream. "Open it," Weir ordered as she looked over at the gate technician. When his only response was a hesitant look, she glared at him sternly, "Open it," she repeated. He turned his head and did so.
"You may step through," Weir announced, but received only static in reply.
John stepped next to Weir and looked down at her. "Are you sure this is such a good idea?" he whispered to her.
She glanced at him. "This woman may have information about the Wraith and it sounds like she's familiar with Atlantis," Weir reminded him as she walked out onto the balcony that overlooked the Stargate, well aware of Sheppard's presence behind her.
There was a deafening silence through the area for a moment before a young woman stepped through, looking backward at the gate worriedly. "Shut it down!" Weir ordered as she hurried down to the same floor where the newcomer was.
"Gunmen, stay put!" Sheppard commanded, looking over the situation quickly. He turned and began to follow in Weir's path. "Get my team here, now!" he shouted to the gate technician, who scrambled to do so. Sheppard sighed to himself as he jumped down the flights of stairs. It really was too early for this kind of thing.
Elizabeth Weir took cautious steps into the gate room, her eyes focused on the newcomer. She was a teenager—sixteen at the most. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. The teenager's clothes weren't quite so different from Teyla's, Weir realized. However, there was only one feature of Lia that Weir was focused on: her eyes. The light green irises seemed engulfed by her pupils, glittering maliciously in the light.
"Lia," Elizabeth said stonily. She frowned as she looked at the girl. There was some instinct inside of her that felt like it was trying to warn her about this teenager. Weir watched cautiously as the girl began to make her way over to her. She was infinitely relieved (though she didn't show it) when John walked in, his presence behind her making her feel considerably safer.
Lia laughed, the sound making the hairs on the back of Elizabeth's neck rise. "You are foolish," she hissed in a deep voice, "to be compromised so easily…" she smirked, "Humans."
"What the hell?" Major Sheppard questioned aloud.
The girl smirked. In one fluid movement, she reached around her body, pulling out what appeared to be a Wraith stunner, aiming it at Doctor Weir with precision and the ease of familiarity. Sheppard grabbed Elizabeth around the waste as Lia fired, dragging Weir to the ground and out of the line of fire. Sheppard rolled to his knees, unsheathing his pistol and aiming it at the girl. "Put it down," he ordered, his voice strong. The gunmen on either side had moved into position, immediately aiming for Lia, awaiting Sheppard's order to fire.
Lia stopped and her smirk widened, but she showed no sign of dropping her weapon. "You are aligned against the Wraith…yet you clamber so quickly to allow one into your presence," she stated.
"You aren't a Wraith," Sheppard scoffed. He looked her up and down once, just to make sure. Nope. No pale skin, fingernails nicely trimmed, her teeth not so yellow… She was definitely not a Wraith. So what the heck was she trying to pull? John frowned. Come to think of it, she actually kind of reminded him of someone…
"Appearances may be deceiving," Lia replied, the words rolling off of her lips like molasses, "Isn't that one of your Earth sayings, Major Sheppard?" she asked in an innocent voice.
Suddenly the doors into the room opened and Rodney McKay rushed in. He stopped dead after a few paces, his eyes wide as he looked at Lia and then to the stunner she was holding in her hands. "I-I was just…leaving," McKay said, his hands in the air. He went to turn.
"Stop," Lia ordered, taking a step toward him.
Sheppard raised his pistol back up, his finger wrapping around the trigger. "Don't come any closer," he warned, yet his words seemed lost on Lia.
Her eyes were still locked onto the face of a petrified McKay, narrowed but somehow not containing the menace that had been contained in them before. Sheppard's eyes darted back and forth between the two before settling on Lia once more. His grip on his pistol lessened slightly as he saw her hand shaking, barely able to hold the stunner any longer. She stumbled backward, the stunner's aim falling downward. John raised his hand with the pistol in it as she lifted the stunner, looking at it as if it was poison. With a loud clang, the stunner hit the ground. Lia's eyes locked onto Sheppard's for a brief instant before she stumbled backward again. Major Sheppard rose to his feet, still aiming his gun at her. Lia's legs crumbled beneath her and she fell backwards, sprawled out over the floor.
Sheppard looked back at Weir, who was slowly rising to her feet, her face matching the bewilderment on McKay's. The room was dead silent when Carson Beckett rushed in, his face red from running to the room. "What's going on?" he asked to the room, his eyes darting from person to person.
"That's a very good question," John told him. He motioned to the girl's body. "Check on her."
Looking uncertain, Beckett approached Lia, kneeling down beside her and placing his fingers on her neck and opening her eyelids as Sheppard waited impatiently. "She's unconscious," Carson announced firmly.
"You sure?" Sheppard inquired and Beckett glanced back at her once before answering.
"Positive," he replied.
Sheppard turned around, heading back toward Weir as he holstered his gun. "Good," he stated.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Beckett said, taking a step after him. "How is that good?' he asked.
"She's a Wraith," the major answered bluntly. Carson looked at her body and frowned.
"She claims to be a Wraith," Elizabeth corrected as she looked at Carson.
"She doesn't look like a Wraith," Beckett told her disbelievingly.
Weir smiled tightly. "I hope you had a good night's sleep, Beckett, because you're going to be running tests on her as of…" she consulted her watch, "…now."
Carson sighed heavily, looking at the girl's body for a long moment. He opened his mouth and whirled around to say something to Weir, but found that she had already left. "Why me?" he asked to the empty air, "Why me?"
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Lia Mitch and the story itself. The characters are (c) of MGM.
Author's Note: I hope you guys like this! If any of you have read my Stargate story, I'm so sorry I haven't updated! I have so much writer's block for that. But I'm going to try at this. I've got most of the second chapter written, so no worries yet! Please review!